London's Royal Opera House currently has 372 Instagram images attached to it by way of a #royaloperahouse hashtag. Another 816 Instagram users have specifically tagged their posts with the words 'Somerset House' and almost 500 have left the equivalent of a mobile calling cards by geo-tagging pictures to the Royal Opera House's foursquare location in the past month alone.

These are just a few examples of how mobile photography has given anyone armed with a smartphone the ability to provide real-time visual updates on cultural and arts events.

More to the point, they are doing so without asking permission. You might see that as a threat, with mobile users sending out unapproved images into the ether – but hopefully you'll see it as a huge opportunity and actively encourage it. Over the past few weeks, I've seen the two different approaches at play.

I live in Greenwich and at least twice a day pass through the Old Royal Naval College, now a popular location for film sets. Earlier this month, large parts of the college were transformed into 19th century Paris, with sections of the Les Misérables film being shot there. This included stables for horses, hundreds of uniformed extras and a giant elephant statue in front of the Painted Hall.

As an almost obsessive user of the network, I wanted to share this on Instagram. The attitude of the location assistants varied though.

Some were helpful and didn't stop you, so long as the cameras weren't rolling. Others gave you a point blank "no" – there was no consistent line. Of course, taking a picture with an iPhone is different than using a giant telephoto lens, and it's not difficult to take and upload pictures without being spotted.

Now just imagine that all the location assistants and security guards have been given the following instructions: if the cameras aren't on and you see people taking photos with their phones, encourage them! In fact, ask them if they are going to share the pictures on social networks and if so, suggest they tag it #lesmis.

The Royal Naval College is a UNESCO World Heritage site with tourists passing through it every day. A significant amount of buzz and pre-film publicity – potentially more valuable than any trailer – could have been generated in this way.

In contrast, Future Cinema, a brand we work for at Rabbit, sees things differently.

Running until Sunday 29 April, Future Cinema has transformed the Troxy in Limehouse into an interactive film experience around Bugsy Malone. As anyone who has ever been to a Future Cinema event will know, this isn't a simple screening; it's fully immersive, complete with audience participation. It's the sort of event people will want to share, and Future Cinema is encouraging visitors to do just that.

Once there we encouraged them to take and post photos. We also let them look behind the scenes. Over the past two weekends, 250 images have been posted and tagged #futurecinemabugsy, with many more untagged ones uploaded.

Many of those images have been shared via Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and foursquare – it's important to remember Instagram provides one click sharing options, giving the photos a far wider reach. In addition to exposure, they've also provided us with a visual – and permanent – diary of the event.

The total reach of the Future Cinema Instagram campaign currently stands at over 130,000 on Instagram alone. The total reach of the #futurecinemabugsy tag on Twitter currently stands at 3.1 million, with much of the Twitter content having originated from Instagram. Our first drive using Instagram (along with our other social tactics) has resulted in a sharp increase in ticket sales over the first weekend, which has continued throughout the production period.

So what should you be doing with your event or performance? First of all, develop a visual social media policy. It's perfectly understandable that if you have talent on-site, they won't appreciate an army of mobile snappers taking their pictures and sharing them with the wider world. You also don't want live events being interrupted.

However, at the same time a point blank "no" isn't practical and makes no commercial sense. What elements of your event or production would you like people to share? Are there any specific photo opportunities that you can guide people to?

Then, make sure everyone is on board, from every single staff member who has customer contact right down to the box office team. Tell them the dos and don'ts where they actively encourage smartphone users to take certain shots. Give them a hashtag to pass on. You could go as far as creating physical signs with social media prompts ("this is a good photography spot, use this hashtag" etc).

Then, post your event or performance, pull in Instagram's API by displaying the images on your own site. Even if the event has finished, you're providing visual inspiration for why people should book with you in future.

At last count, forty million people were using Instagram, with other photo-sharing networks such as PicYou, Via.me and Tadaa also growing in popularity. That's not an audience you can afford to ignore, especially when what you do is already inherently visual. The choice is yours whether you leave them to their own devices, or encourage and harness what is going on.

Dirk Singer is a director of social media agency Rabbit – you can find him on both Instagram and Twitter as @dirktherabbit